The Rapist Among Us

I was shocked to the marrow a few months ago when  I got home to a strange news, the type I'd never heard of before in my area in history, past or my growing up years (I am not assuming such never happened though). I only asked why Femi (not his real name) a young 19 years old boy operating a barbing salon just outside my house was not opened, and to my surprise, I was told that Femi, and his friend Drogba (nick name) my neighbour's son who was 18 years old and a third person who probably was as strange as the dastardly act were raped two teenage secondary school girls, recorded it with their phone unmasked, and shared it with friends. It was almost unbelievable because I watched two of the three accused grow up, and I sometimes do the long journey of driving home, just to have a haircut in his shop to encourage him. I dismissed allegation (the family syndrome) until I was confronted with the video. I busted  out with rage, my blood boiled and I would have committed another crime if any of those kids were 100km near me when I saw the video. They were lucky to be far beyond my reach. Femi was in police custody cooling off while he awaits trial, and his gang members had absconded before the law enforcers could lay a hand on them. The sad reality of this event was that the video was in circulation for months, people watched it and passed it, nobody was going to report it because they knew the criminal kids involved and their parents, it was wrong but it was acceptable because of some stupid communal bond (family syndrome). It took a real mother, one great woman to report the case. She discovered that the girls that got raped were her daughter's classmates, she felt it could have been her daughter in that room crying, begging and screaming for help and mercy, she dragged the bull by the tail ignoring whether it kicked or not, without fear of the communal stigma and danger involved, she went to the police and took them to the home of Femi first, but the news of the arrest broke and the two others fled before the law could catch up with them.

Eight months later, 20 years old Femi has been sentenced to spend all of his youth in prison and should probably be out before his 40th birthday if he lives long enough to complete his 19 years sentence. His fleeing compatriots were also found guilty in absentia and given a longer sentence but since they are at large, they will begin anytime they are found, anywhere in Nigeria by the law enforcement agencies. I am saddened by the fact that this young boy will lose his youth and perhaps his co-criminal will someday be found and led to prison too but hey! Who will stand up to lead this few public office holders and corrupt politicians that rapes Nigerians by the million everyday to the altar of justice so we can send them to a pathetic sojourn within the walls of the very desolate prisons across Nigeria.

Nigeria is built on the immoral and feeble threads of diverse communal connections along different variation in the name of ethnicity, tribe or religion and the stench of the decay in our society we cover daily with the torn umbrella of being our brother's keeper. The hypocrite in us as grown so huge that we can no longer act or pretend. It is as seen on TV, unscripted like the pages of the scriptures.  An Edwin Clarke supports the lackluster performance of the presidency not just because he's being enriched by it, but because he's an Ijaw man, a Dokubo is far more outspoken with is alienation. The North will only hear of it if the man is Hausa or Muslim no matter how light the weight of his credibility is, the Easterners will not even bother about whether their brother or sister is a saint or sinner as long as he, she or it is "Ndigbo" and the Yoruba's have a lewd expression for supporting this mediocrity that has brought Nigeria to her knees "Omo wa ni, eje o se" (He's  our son, let him do it irrespective of his standing), I just hope this syndrome doesn't cripple Nigeria and keep her lame before we break out of it. Perhaps the only people that had sent their own to prison is the OBJ and the ex-convict is Bode George and it was all as a result of personal beef and not for the good of Nigeria. 

Nigerians are being raped and sodomized every second of every day and night by her own government and people. We wash in horror but instead of calling the law to act, we sympathize even enjoy it and share the misery with the next man, woman or child just because the culprit is a kin by ethnicity, tribe or religion but we are quick t scream if the rapist is from the other side of town, screaming for his head or tail in atonement for the sin that happens recklessly and endlessly within our own court that we do nothing to control, end or punish the culprit or heal the victim. It is one of those things when it the criminal is one of our own, we do everything to cover the dust and mop it up, but we scream till we convulse when it's an Imam because our own murderer is a deacon. I hope the mothers (male and female) amongst us will awake to the danger this anomaly potent within, let's not wait till the victim is our son or daughter, let's squash our stupidity in supporting mediocrity. We can end corruption by exposing it within our walls and household, end the menace of Boko Haram by pointing our sons that are in the sect, build a new Nigeria by ending the stupid protection policies that God did not ordain us to observe.

I doff my hat for Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, the father of the "Xmas Day Bomber" who reported the extremist tendencies of his own son before that fateful Christmas day episode. We must quit pointing fingers and win the war from within before it wane us down to the lowest ebb and win us from within and without.

How To Vote Abidemi Oderinlo into The WYMD Leadership Board

 Voting as started now please vote Abidemi Oderinlo for the Africa Region (World Youth Movement for Democracy):

1) Go to this link: 
www.wymdonline.org  or  http://democratic-youth.net/world-youth-movement-for-democracy/voting-2014/

2) Register to be a member using Your Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo or Wordpress by clicking on the icon and sign in or Register directly on the page by clicking the blue Register beside the login button.

3) Click on the REGIONS map to go to the voting page

Once you click on the map, it will redirect you to STEP-1 which is Europe, start by selecting the name of the candidate or select "none of the above", scroll down and click “VOTE AND MOVE TO THE NEXT AREA”. This will automatically redirect you to the next continent.

 4) Select the name of the contestant for each region of or “None the above” if you don’t know them or don’t want to vote in the region and click on “VOTE AND MOVE TO THE NEXT AREA”

When you get to STEP 3, the Africa region, select name ABIDEMI ODERINLO

5) Finish by clicking SUBMIT VOTES

6) A thank you page confirms the completion of the voting process

                                               

QED!!!!

Now that we know how to get it done, let's go for it. Go to this link:  www.wymdonline.org  or  http://democratic-youth.net/world-youth-movement-for-democracy/voting-2014/

Thank You!

ABIDEMI ODERINLO for WYMD Leadership Board.. Vote! Vote!! Vote!!!

The World Youth Movement for Democracy (WYMD) is a network that aims to support the development of sustainable democracy movements by empowering the next generation of democracy activists. The movement provides a space for young activists to build relationships with each other, to collaborate across borders, to deepen their knowledge on key issues, and to develop practical skills. It promotes democratic values and provides for sharing of information and ideas and it is guided by a Leadership Board with representation from Africa, Asia, Europe/Eurasia, the Americas, and the Middle East and North Africa regions under a supervising Advisory Council.

The election that will place new young leaders on the Leadership Board of WYMD begins today 07/02/2014 12:00noon EST and ends on 11/02/2014 by 12:00noon EST on www.wymdonline.org. Seven young Africans, Four Asians, One Latin American, One European and One Middle Easterner that are interested in taking Democracy in the world to a new horizon will be contesting for positions on the board and the power to decide is in your hands. Who will you be voting for? Click here to find out how.

I am Abidemi Oderinlo a young Nigerian, contesting to represent Africa on the Leadership Board of WYMD. 

Youths in Africa have been yearning for an opportunity, a platform, a medium through which they can express their views, air their voices, become a part of the process and bodies that creates the policies and make decision that affects their lives, they want to be involved in building the world they live in, be heard and respected, be saddled with more responsibilities and not sidelined by the system on the grounds of being inexperience, incompetent or too young to be responsible for a lot. This is what WYMD is offering, and this is why I am standing to represent Africa on the board, with the prospect of opening young Africans to youth empowerment opportunities and the best practices of democracy that are applicable and practicable on the African continent, through my direct interaction with young democracy activist and leaders represented on the board.

The challenges facing democracy in African countries are similar, therefore it is important for young African to come together find a common ground to analyze, define, and strategize on how to tackle these challenges, towards a more democratic Africa. Given the opportunity to serve on the WYMD Leadership Board, I intend to use the platform to broker relationship that will strengthen and unify our voices, opening more young Africans to opportunities that will increase exchange of ideas, and proven youth driven democratic practices within and from other countries of the world, that will improve our polity as a continent and build for all a more vibrant and productive society.

The Arrowhead of Change, Growth and Development.

The Young Change Makers

All over the world, the youths have always been the strength of every nation both in times of peace or war, they define the fate of nations, directly or indirectly, for good or bad either by their actions or inaction.

History, across all classifications clearly shows that the strength or weakness of the young and energetic population of every nation and people defines her success or failure. Africans as a people have experienced tremendous change through the strength of her youths, and her freedom from colonization was largely engineered by her young population.

Kwame Nkrumah started the movement to liberate Ghana before his 30th birthday, Thomas Sankara liberated the Upper Volta from the French colonial, renamed her Burkina Faso ("Land of Upright Men") and launched one of the most ambitious programmes for social and economic change ever attempted on the African continent at the age of 33. Mandella's long walk to freedom started in his youth at the age of 19 in 1937, while Martin Luther King, Jr. started leading the Civil Right Movement at the age of 25.

In business, John D. Rockefeller started at the age of 20 and rose to become the first billionaire in the history of America, and at the age of 21, J.P. Morgan introduced a process of taking over troubled businesses to reorganize them, and the process was renowned and dubbed "Morganization". Bill Gate started Microsoft at the age of 20, Steve Jobs started Apple at 21 and Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook at 20. Throughout history, the greatest achievements of man that has changed the way we live were initiated by young people who reached beyond the limits of the norms.

To be young is to be without limits in thoughts and in action, to innovate and to create, to build and sustain and not otherwise in all things and at all times. It is a wrong ideology to see the strength in youthfulness as a ready catalyst for  political violence and siege, and if the vitality of the youth were to be used in a siege, it must be a siege for positive change and not selfish political conquest as it is currently experience in some parts of Africa and other developing countries. This destructive design, craftily masterminded by the unthinking political elites, most of whom started their political careers in their youth, in their bid to hold onto power instead paving the way for the creative energy of the youths to come to bare and rule. As youths, we must eschew this vices, become conscious of our strength and realise our potentials. We must synergize our essence which is of good and growth, and use it to neutralize the hold of the old, feeble, frail few who are working to change the purpose of youthfulness from good to evil.

To be young is to be a tool for positive change, a problem solver, an elixir of hope and a catalyst for a better today and tomorrow.

NB: I am joining Leadership Board of World Youth Movement for Democracy and I need your support to make it a reality. visit www.wymdonline.org to register and be eligible to vote. 

Voting starts from 7th, Feb. 2014 -- 11th, Feb. 2014. Winners will be announced 12th, Feb. 2014.

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